Survival of Adult Basal Forebrain Cholinergic Neurons After Loss of Target Neurons
- 19 January 1990
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 247 (4940) , 338-342
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1688664
Abstract
Target cells are thought to regulate the survival of afferent neurons during development by supplying limiting amounts of neurotrophic factors, but the degree to which afferent neurons remain dependent on target-derived support in the adult is uncertain. In this study, uninjured basal forebrain cholinergic neurons did not die after excitotoxic ablation of their target neurons in young adult rats, indicating that they are either not dependent on neurotrophic factors for survival or can obtain trophic support from other sources after target neurons are lost. This finding suggests that cholinergic cell death in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease is not due solely to a loss of target neurons or factors provided by them.Keywords
This publication has 37 references indexed in Scilit:
- Trophic factors and neuronal survivalNeuron, 1989
- Basic fibroblast growth factor and nerve growth factor administered in gel foam rescue medial septal neurons after fimbria fornix transectionJournal of Neuroscience Research, 1989
- Nerve growth factor promotes development of the rat septo-hippocampal cholinergic projection in vitroNeuroscience Letters, 1987
- FOR MONETARY REWARDNursing2021, 1987
- An analysis of the origins of the cholinergic and noncholinergic septal projections to the hippocampal formation of the ratJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1985
- Is Alzheimer disease caused by lack of nerve growth factor?Annals of Neurology, 1983
- Alzheimer's Disease and Senile Dementia: Loss of Neurons in the Basal ForebrainScience, 1982
- Time course of increases in retrograde labeling and increases in cell size of entorhinal cortex neurons sprouting in response to unilateral entorhinal lesionsJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1980
- Adult rat brain astrocytes support survival of both NGF-dependent and NGF-insensitive neuronesNature, 1979
- Progressive Brain Damage Accelerates Axon Sprouting in the Adult RatScience, 1977